Pathways to Learning Chinese

Learning Chinese is no easy feat by any stretch of the imagination. There are different routes to take and goals to consider when choosing them. A student may want to focus on travel Chinese or fluency in speech. There is also the decision to learn the thousands of characters or Pinyin (the Romanized written form). These are the decisions one needs to make before choosing a course or self-taught Chinese language materials. The most important thing to remember is Chinese is not an easy language and a student must focus on pronunciation just as much as tonal differences of syllables.




Of course, the best way to learn any language is to enroll in a course and study. It might even be a good idea to take a job in a rural area of the People’s Republic of China—fully immersing oneself in any language can be a path to linguistic success. However, it is easy enough to escape speaking Chinese in larger cities as more Chinese are learning English. But many people do not have the luxury of time and/or money to enroll and attend classes or seek employment in China. There is also a lack in quality and quantity of Chinese teachers in North America. This is what leads to the self-teaching market for books, CDs, DVDs, and Web sites.




The problem of the self-teaching market is enormous choice one has—there is a resource out there for everyone. So, for the motivated student, there needs to be a substantial effort made to sort through everything in order to discover what works best. And, as always, there needs to be the motivation of sticking with the learning process.




The first piece of advice when beginning a search is, does one want to learn Mandarin or Cantonese? Mandarin is more recognizable as it is the official language of China (although there are many dialects of it throughout the country). Cantonese is generally only spoken in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province. For most students, Mandarin is the common choice.